An example of an active electrical/optical communication component is an optical transceiver that is used for communication by receiving and transmitting optical signals through optical waveguides such as optical fibers. With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary use of an optical transceiver 30 is illustrated mounted on a circuit card assembly 32. The circuit card assembly includes a circuit card 34 on which various electrical components are mounted. The optical transceiver 30 is electrically connected to the circuit card 34, and optically coupled to an I/O connector 36 via a fiber optic pigtail 38. The fiber optic pigtail 38 extends from the connector 36 to the optical transceiver 30 to pass optical signals to and from the transceiver. The connector 36 includes a ferrule that can be designed to allow blind-mate connection to another circuit card assembly, such as a backplane, by implementing float for alignment.
In the assembly in FIG. 1, placing the transceiver on the circuit card 34 occupies space on the circuit card 34 that could be eliminated or used to mount other components. In addition, special care, including manual mounting of the transceiver, must be taken to mount the transceiver to avoid damaging the fiber optic pigtail 38. Further, the fiber optic pigtail 38 is exposed and prone to damage during regular handling and maintenance of the circuit card assembly.